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Painted entirely in shades of white, charcoal, and steel gray, a slim, white, almost ghostly dog makes its way from our left to right with its snout held low, along a sidewalk or rails in this vertical composition. The dog is thinly painted and blurry, as if shown in action, so the details are difficult to make out. The dark, gray space is defined only by three diagonals running from the center of the left edge down into the lower right corner. Within the band made by the lower two diagonals, two parallel sets of curving, parallel lines suggest grates or gutters over storm drains. Seeming unrelated to the rest of the image, three faint, gray, ruled lines radiate upward from a point near the lower-left corner to intersect the lowermost border defining the gutter.

Francis Bacon

Study for a Running Dog, c. 1954

East Building, Upper Level - Gallery 407A

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 152.7 x 116.7 cm (60 1/8 x 45 15/16 in.)

framed: 160 x 123.8 x 5 cm (63 x 48 3/4 x 1 15/16 in.)

Credit Line

Given in memory of Charles Edward Rhetts by his wife and children

Accession Number

1976.7.1

Artists / Makers

Francis Bacon (artist) British, 1909 - 1992

Image Use

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Provenance

(Marlborough Gallery, London); sold 1957 to Charles Edward [1910-1971] and Ruth Fisher [1910-1990] Rhetts;[1] by inheritance to Mrs. Rhetts; gift 1976 to NGA.

[1] This information was given by Mrs. Rhetts to Charles Parkhurst, Jr., NGA's assistant director (note to the file, 10 February 1976, in NGA curatorial files). There is label from The Hanover Gallery, London, on the painting's backing board that includes Mr. Rhetts' name as owner.

Associated Names

Rhetts, Charles Edward, Mrs.

Exhibition History

1957: Loan to display with permanent collection, Art Institute of Chicago, 1957-1960.

2006: Francis Bacon. The Violence of the Real, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 2006-2007, no. 14, repro.

2012: Francis Bacon: Five Decades, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2012-2013.

2013: Francis Bacon, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota-Aichi, 2013, no. 7, repro.

2017: Francis Bacon / Bruce Nauman. Face à face., Musée Fabre, Montpellier, 2017, no. 25, repro.

Bibliography

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 34, repro.